I Like America and America Likes Me

Joseph Beuys’ most important conceptual work is the performance I Like America and America Likes Me (1974). For three days, Beuys lived in a New York gallery with a wild coyote, never touching the floor outside the protective gallery. The piece explores human-animal interaction, conflict, and mutual understanding. It symbolizes reconciliation between humanity and nature, Europe and America, and transforms the gallery into a space of dialogue, emphasizing art as process and social engagement rather than static object.